Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), which includes both ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease, emerged in the past century and have exhibited a sharp rise since the 1950s. But despite extensive research, the cause of IBD remains unknown.
In a letter published in the journal Inflammatory Bowel Diseases, Dr. Xiaofa Qin reveals how a series of findings led him to suspect that the artificial sweetener saccharin may have played a causative role in IBD. However, this failed to provide an explanation for the recently reported record high incidence of IBD in Canada, which has adopted a more strict use of saccharin than most other Western countries. But continued examination led Dr. Qin to evidence suggesting that the high incidence of IBD in Canada was probably caused by sucralose (Splenda), through the same mechanism as saccharine.
According to Dr. Qin:
“Here I would like to provide more evidence I gathered recently suggesting a possible link between sucralose consumption and IBD in other countries. For instance, Australia approved sucralose use in 1993, while the study by Hanigan and Radford-Smith found an accelerated increase of IBD in north Brisbane since 1994 ... The European Union approved sucralose use in 2004, while a series of studies by Perminow et al found that the incidences of pediatric IBD in southeastern Norway were 4.7 during 1990-1993 ... and 10.6 during 2005-2007.”